


Weed Trek

by Logan_H01



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:15:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26864260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Logan_H01/pseuds/Logan_H01
Summary: This is a story about weed dealers in the Star Trek universe. That's it really, its my first attempt at a long writing project and I hope people like it. So far I have 6 parts written and a seventh in the works. All comments are appreciated, especially constructive criticism. Please, for the love of Nagilum, new title suggestions, I have no idea what to call this.
Kudos: 3





	1. Internal Transporters

“Ships log, star date 440… It’s the 20th of December 2401. I think it’s Tuesday. Captain Chris Hardy, Star ship Lovecraft. Our new hydroponics lab has been installed; Bev has begun planting the seeds for our new operation. The Bolian we bought the seeds from said that they had been in stasis on earth for three hundred years. He better not have been lying because that’s three bars of gold pressed Latium I paid for that shit and if they’re not good then I may have to contact some friends of mine in the Orion Syndicate. If all goes to plan, then we should have half of our hold full of Cannabis Indica by the time we reach the beta quadrant.”

Captain Hardy sat back in his chair and looked over to the helm. His sister, Alana was looking back at him disapprovingly.  
“I can’t believe that you are okay with this. Smuggling narcotics is one thing but producing them and selling them, we could all spend life in a Federation Prison just because you think you can make a quick slip.” Her blue eyes pierced deep into Chris’s soul, his twin sister always knew how he really felt about doing anything, and she could tell that he was sceptical about his friend’s new business idea. 

“We have known Bevoni since we were kids, and he’s never steered me wrong” Chris asked hoping she wouldn’t reply before he could continue. “No. He is my best friend and one of the few people in this god forsaken quadrant that I trust, present company excluded of course. Anyway, you said you would follow my orders if were on my ship, I bought it after all, and I didn’t have to bring you with me.”

Alana had only agreed to fly the Lovecraft because she couldn’t stand to live with their mother any longer, that and the fact that if she wasn’t there to supervise, she was sure her brother would end up dead or in prison. After much negotiation, she had also convinced her brother to allow her boyfriend to come on board as well so that she had someone whom she could tolerate on their journeys. She was incredibly surprised that Chris allowed Myles Daxon anywhere near his ship. He had never approved of him, however his medical skills proved useful to the young skipper. As a bonus, she had convinced Myles to forego any payment, telling him that the experience would be worth 10 bars of Latium a day. Plus, with such a diverse crew he may have opportunities to perform some interesting research.

“Does that mean you trust me?” Salem Marrik butted in, turning away from his engineering station to give his captain a sarcastic look. Captain Hardy ignored the question, remembering that there were three of them in the room. 

“Quiet you snarky Cardy, did you divert the power like Bev said?” Hardy snapped.

“That power draw will leave at least one section of this ship without power, why does he need so many lights?” Marrik asked, he wasn’t well versed in the science behind hydroponics, however Hardy had insisted that he help Bev with their new operation. His main concern was getting caught. After the dominion war Cardassians weren’t favoured upon by the federation courts, let alone the inmates of the prisons. Luckily Hardy had a plan set up for that outcome.

“Just reroute it from Daxon’s quarters, if he wants to stay on this ship, he should think about leaving them for once.” Bev said as he entered the bridge. “I don’t understand why you insist on recording that Chris, were not on a federation star ship, there is no one who needs to hear it.”

“I agree,” Alana turned back to her console “If anything it will be used as evidence in our eventual trial.” She pressed a few buttons, bringing a list of dates on the viewscreen. “These are all the logs that mention things that could implicate one or all of us.”

Hardy squinted as he leaned forward in his chair “Oh its Thursday.” He mumbled as he motioned to Marrik to remove them from the screen. He complied but received an angry look from Alana in return. Luckily for him she was distracted by Bev, who had just entered the bridge.

“I need an extra pair of hands downstairs Marrik.” Bev said with a grin. 

Marrik looked back at him “Shall I run the program? It works in most of the ship; however, the engine room had a lot of interference that takes a bit more computing power to work around.”

“Program, what program?” Hardy asked, “You didn’t tell me you were working on any programs Marrik.”

“Don’t worry Chris I think you will like it, Computer, run program Salem one bridge!” Marrik turned to the door with a smile on his grey face, winking at Hardy as he averted his gaze.

A quiet whirring could be heard as a large light appeared for a few seconds. Then that light turned into a person.

“Holy hell!” Myles Daxon shouted as he slowly realised what had happened. “Chris! Alana!” Daxon shot his eyes around the room at each of the people staring at him.

“How did you manage that?” Hardy said giggling “This ship doesn’t have internal transporters.”

“Just removed a few of the safety protocols on the cargo transporters in the hold. I programmed them to see the inside of the ship as a destination for cargo to be transported to. Then to see him as cargo so that we can drag him wherever we need him to be.”

“That’s pretty useful” Hardy said looking back to Alana, who was speechless with rage.

“Excuse me but I have a few objections to this!” Daxon shouted at Marrik, who was still smiling at Bev.

“Computer, run program Salem one hydroponics”

“Wait” Daxon said as he disappeared from the bridge.

“It only works with him and only Hardy, Bev and I have access to the program.”

“What the hell!” Alana yelled directly at Marrik “Salem! You can’t just deactivate those protocols, and then put a person through it without testing.”

“Oh, we tested it don’t worry” Bev butted in, “We tested it the other day whilst he was asleep, we moved him from his bed into my bed so he wouldn’t wake up. We scanned him before beaming him back and he was fine.

Marrik was growing more concerned with how Alana was looking at him. She had stood up from her console and was glaring at him very intensely. He thought she was going to hit him until she turned back to her brother.

“I get that you don’t like him, but you still have to treat him like a person.” Alana shouted at Hardy, who was fiddling with his chair whilst avoiding eye contact . Alana was all too used to this as she had suffered through Chris’s antics through their whole childhood. Her resolution was to storm out of the bridge, pushing past Bev as she went.

“You two are bloody genius!” Hardy said when he was sure Alana was out of earshot. “Bev, you better get back down there before he starts touching things without knowing what they do.”

“Good point,” Bev said “Marrik, thanks for the help with the power, that many lights are a big draw on the supply.” 

Bev left the bridge in a hurry. Marrik stood and shuffled over to the captain’s chair.

“I have also programmed the computer to read all of our life signs as Daxon, if anyone tries to scan or beam out anyone on board, they will get him instead and the rest of us will be hidden.”

“Well done Salem, the ships records say that the ship belongs to him and everybody on it has no idea about anything going on inside. As far as anyone else is concerned were all contractors without any skills that can help in an operation such as this.” Hardy stood and walked over to the helm console, tapping a few buttons, dropping them out of warp and engaging silent running. “Let’s get a look at hydroponics, I want to see what Bev’s got Daxon doing for him.”


	2. Nevis

“Bev! Treat me like a person, or I won’t help you with this!” Daxon tried to shout angrily, however it came out whinier than he wanted.

“Will you quiet down!” Bev’s Andorian temper was showing as he rubbed his blue temples. “Pass me that tricorder will you, I need to make sure these seeds are germinating properly otherwise they won’t grow.”

Daxon reluctantly complied, mumbling to himself about how it was a violation of his rights and similar issues he has with being pulled about the ship at will. At that moment, Hardy and Marrik walked in.

“Can I try Marrik?” Hardy said, gesturing to Daxon.

“You want to say Salem One Daxon Quarters”

“Hold on!” Daxon protested storming up to the Captain. As he got closer Hardy put his hand over Daxon’s mouth.

“Computer run program Salem one Daxon Quarters” He said with a smug grin, as Daxon vanished before them. “That is very satisfying, is it the same command for each room?”

“Yes Chris, don’t try with engineering because it will kill him.” Marrik warned.

“Or do and save me the trouble of disposing of the body.” Bev joked as he ran his fingers through his white hair. “Marrik I need you to run the extra power through all of these lights so I can change their brightness individually.”

“That’s going to take some time Bev, why didn’t you get them installed with the rest of the bay?” Marrik was frustrated with the unprofessionalism Bev often showed when working, he never seemed to understand how much work goes into running a ship. He thought Andorians were hard working, but usually Bev was wasting time with useless escapades. The only one of his ideas to work out so far was the internal transporter, and he was the one who did all the hard work. 

“That sounds unnecessary Bev, why do you need that?” Hardy asked, trying to act like he knew what all this equipment did.

“I don’t need them, but I think that they may turn out useful in another plan I’m figuring out.” Bev said as he turned away and dug around in the plant beds.

“Well if you don’t need them then I’m not going to make Marrik install them. We have enough to worry about without our engineer running around doing pointless tasks.” Hardy was also noticing Bev’s poor work ethic, he was surprised he hadn’t noticed before, but he must have just been used to it after knowing him for so long. “Which reminds me, our engine efficiency is only at 83% since you rerouted all this power, is there nothing we can do to make that better? We will need to make all of the deliveries of this stuff in quick succession so that the authorities don’t have enough time to make the connections.”

“I don’t have the resources to get it any higher and maintain the power output for the rest of the ship. Those lights would put more strain on the power supply, and I would have to take the warp core offline as well, just to maintain life support.” Marrik couldn’t figure out why Hardy and Bev couldn’t understand that only so much power could be produced in such a small ship. The only person who seemed to understand the limits of the ship was Alana, and she was still furious with him for treating her boyfriend like a piece of machinery. “This is not a galaxy class ship with back-up power supplies and safety parameters, we cannot make modifications on systems like that without affecting the whole ship.”

“Fine, you guys get on with whatever you need to do. I’m going to my quarters and I don’t want to be disturbed.” Hardy said looking down at his feet and turning towards the door. “Bev, at some point I need you to talk to Alana and try and make her like us again. I don’t want to deal with her being angry for this whole operation.” 

“You got it Chris, see you later” Bev said as the door shut behind his friend. He and Marrik knew something was up. Hardy was never good at hiding his emotions, no matter how hard he tried.

As Hardy heard the door close behind him, he let out a long sigh. As he began on his walk back to his quarters he started to think about his decisions of late. Hardy was disappointed, his dream had always been to command a ship with a crew that would follow his every command. He was realising that filling his ship with friends and family and Daxon was not the best idea in the world. He trusted them but due to their relationship prior to the ship, they weren’t taking him as seriously as he would have wanted. 

This was how it had always been. He had always had friends, but he was always brushed off by them. Few had thought about him when making plans to go out or when throwing a party. He always bounced around friend groups, making many acquaintances but few long-term friends. He usually joined friend groups by becoming friends with one person and then being introduced to the others. He would always have been treated like an outsider and never considered part of the group other than by the friend that introduced them. His longest standing friend was Bevoni. They had grown up like brothers. He considered his parents his aunt and uncle. His sister a cousin. Without Bev, Chris’ childhood would have been a lonely one if not for him.

Hardy saw his quarters at the end of the corridor, a small grey door that blended well with the rest of the corridor. The only distinctive feature being the red strip across half of the door that had bold white text printed onto it: “Cpt Chris Hardy”. The sight of that brought a faint smile to his face. As he entered, his mood dropped once again. Glancing around the small, cramped room he remembered that he was only a captain because he owned the ship, not because earned the title.. 

His crew didn’t even call him that, they didn’t say sir, they didn’t say boss, it was just Chris or Hardy. Once, Marrik had called him skipper after he first boarded as a greeting, but he never heard that again. He liked skipper and wouldn’t have minded if they all called him that. Maybe he would have a talk with them in the morning about it. However, he thought they would all just laugh and make fun, so he would probably just forget it. 

None of this was important, but Hardy often found himself caught up in these thoughts. Maybe he should have brought his mother on as a ships councillor, although she was never good with confidentiality. Her book club were well versed in all of his teenage problems. 

Hardy was brought out of his depressing daydream by an incoming message from Kronos. He knew exactly who it was and why he was calling, however that didn’t mean he was prepared.

“Nevis! Good to hear from you!” Hardy wore a fake smile as he opened the transmission from his Orion buyer “My crew have been working constantly to get our operation underway and you will be happy to know that the growing process has begun, we should have half of the requested amount by the time we reach the beta quadrant.”

“What about the rest Hardy? You can’t give all of my clients half of what they have paid for.” Nevis raspy voice was even more jarring through a comm panel than it was in person.

“We have taken all of the different destinations into account, by the time we have finished dropping off the first four orders, we will have grown enough to give the final three orders the amount they have paid for.” Hardy explained, he also knew that they would have a surplus that they could sell for even more over in the Ferengi alliance. This would put them if favour with the Grand Nagus as well, depending on who they sell it to. 

“Good, after you deliver the last shipment you will return to Kronos and I will give you the money you are owed.” Nevis said, with a devious grin on his green face. This was not unlike the grin he usually wore, as did many Orions, so Hardy thought nothing of it.

“And how much was that? Just to make sure were both on the same page.” Hardy asked, doing his best to look innocent as well as intelligent.

“Twenty bricks of gold pressed latinum, was the agreed price I believe, it will be ready when you arrive to Kronos the second time.” Nevis said.

“Ah, about that, we were hoping to get our payment on our first visit, I think that if we returned to Kronos, the authorities would put two and two together and realise that the sudden surge of illicit cargo in this system is related to my ship. Considering who the authorities are, I don’t think they will bother with a search. I don’t want to risk my crew any more than is necessary.” Hardy said with confidence, which he immediately regretted because, for the first time since they met, Nevis expression changed to an angry scowl.

“Do you think I am stupid human? If I paid you in full with only half of the orders delivered, what is to stop you from running off with the cargo and the latinum? I am not some cheap Rakhari merchant! I am Nevis! An Orion! The Klingons will pay you no mind upon your return, however, if you cross me, I will inform them of your trade, and they will eliminate you without so much as a warning!” Nevis hissed. 

“Yes, of course!” Hardy said, visibly flustered “I’m sorry, I should have realised that you would have a few resources on the planet that you operate from.”

“Yes, don’t make a mistake like that again Hardy! Otherwise there will be a bounty on you, and by you, I mean your ship, crew and cargo.” Nevis was clearly losing faith in the loyalty of his new associates, however he did not let it show, so Hardy assumed that everything was fine. “I will see you when you make your delivery. Be sure to be here on time otherwise the Klingons may get suspicious. Once you have finished, feel free to buy some for yourself. Nevis out.”

Hardy breathed a sigh of relief. He always found conversing with criminals caused him a lot of anxiety, even after they had finished talking. He was always prone to some anxiety attacks as a child, however his mother always brushed it off as nothing, just a child overreacting so a situation he didn’t understand. 

Hardy wasn’t tired at all, so in the meantime he decided to do some research into the psychotropic drug that he was trafficking.


	3. A Negative Reaction

Hardy woke up to a blue scowl

“GET UP!” Bev yelled looking around the room as if searching for something that wasn’t there. He stood up straight and ran over to the door, peering out as it opened. Hardy rubbed his eyes as he clambered out of his bunk,

“What is the problem? Are we under attack?” Hardy began panicking as he realized how frightened his usually calm friend was. He had always been cool under pressure but seeing him react this way to anything meant that there was a serious threat to them and the others. “Where’s Alana? And Salem?”

“Shut up! I think he’s here!” Bev hissed, once again looking out of the door.

Hardy hurried over to his com panel and pressed a few buttons, opening part of the wall. He removed two small phasers from their casing and handed one to Bev.

“Who’s here Bev? We are in deep space on silent running, no one knows were here or what we’re carrying.” Hardy was growing frustrated with his friend as he was beginning to think this was some kind of stupid prank.

“It’s Marrik, he is a Cardy sleeper!” Bev exclaimed, staring at Hardy intently, so much so that Hardy saw that his friends normally pale eyes were a dark blue, darker that his skin. At first Hardy thought nothing of it, he was more concerned with the whereabouts of his sister.

“What do you mean, a sleeper? He grew up on Corvan 2, a Federation colony! There’s no way the Cardassians had the opportunity to train and prepare him to be an operative!” Hardy shouted at Bev, he was becoming more and more skeptical about what his friend was saying. Then he remembered. “Computer run program Salem one Captains quarters!”

For the first time ever, Hardy was happy to see Daxon.

“Myles, where is Alana, is she ok?” Hardy asked 

“Chris, she’s asleep. I was on my way to the med-bay to see if there was something to help Salem.” Myles said, somewhat frustrated, he feared he was going to have to get used to being summoned like a genie whenever he was needed, in fact, he decided, there and then that he would make sure he was wearing underwear at all times, just in case.

“Don’t trust that bloody Cardy! He’ll kill us all!” Bev shouted, peering out the door again, before sprinting out and down the hall.

“No wait come back Bev!” Daxon shouted down the hall “Chris their both high, they tried some of the sample cannabis that we had in the hold. Salem is in fits over in the hydroponics bay, he kept beaming me around the ship, after he stopped, I assumed he just passed out. Bev didn’t react well and now he is extremely paranoid, I think its bringing out his subconscious.”

“And I just handed him a fully charged phaser” Hardy said, realizing why Bev’s eyes were so blue. They were bloodshot. “Go and get Alana, tell her to try and calm Bev down, I will go and find Marrik. Hopefully I’ll get to him before Bev does.”

“Ok, beam me to her quarters,” Daxon said. Suddenly Hardy felt like the transporter system had lost its novelty.

“Computer run program Salem one, Crew quarters two” said Hardy, watching as Daxon disappeared. He stood and made towards the hydroponics bay. In his delirious state, Bev had run the complete opposite way, giving Hardy the chance to beat him there, however, the only other significant place in that direction was engineering.

As Hardy approached the hydroponics bay, he began to hear a strange sound. He had known Marrik for 13 years, even when they were teenagers, Hardy didn’t think he had ever heard his cardassian friend laugh for more than five seconds. When he opened the door, Hardy was greeted by a 26-year-old cardassian slumped against a wall, laughing hysterically at a data pad.

“Marrik?” Hardy approached his cardassian friend, he placed his phaser on a nearby table. As he got closer, he reached out and took the data pad to look at what he was laughing at. Then he realized that the pad was deactivated. “What are you laughing at?” Hardy asked.

“Bev… thinks… I’m… a… spy! Hahahaha!” Marrik laughed after each word. Hardy helped him up. After a few minutes, Marrik began to calm down.

“He’s freaking out Salem, what brought him to that conclusion?” Hardy asked.

“I made a joke” Marrik replied, finally calming down “After we ingested the plant, I said I would report my findings to the Obsidian Order, sarcastically. He freaked out and accused me of being a sleeper agent and bolted when I started laughing”

“I see” Hardy said, he didn’t find it as funny as Marrik did. Hardy’s reply was enough to send him into another laughing fit. Luckily, the door opened and Daxon ran in with a hypo spray.

“This should bring him down a bit” Daxon said, gripping the laughing cardassian by the neck ridges and injecting him.

“What is it?” Hardy asked, mildly concerned.

“A large amount of caffeine, it was the best solution I could find in the medical database with such short notice” Daxon said “It’s not perfect, he will still be a bit giggly for a few hours but is better than nothing.”

“I don’t like coffee.” Marrik said, beginning to sound like his usual self.

“Where’s Alana?” Hardy asked Daxon.

“She’s following Bev, he was skulking around the crew quarters when we left.” Daxon explained “He still has the phaser”

“Where did he get that?” Marrik asked.

“I gave it to him.” Hardy said, he knew he wouldn’t hear the end of it.

“He is actually hunting you, you know” Daxon said, “He’s not kidding around”

“The phaser was on maximum…”

As Hardy said that, the distinctive sound of a phaser hitting a bulkhead cracked through the halls.

“Shit!” Daxon shouted “Beam me to the bridge! I can find him from there.”

“No, if he is there then you might scare him into doing something stupid” Hardy said “Take Marrik to the med bay and I’ll go to the bridge.”

“What about Alana?” Marrik asked

“She can handle herself, Daxon give me the hypo” Hardy ordered, he couldn’t deny he was slightly enjoying having a crew listening to him.

“Ok, let’s go Myles” Marrik said, starting for the door

“He’s perked up” Daxon said, as he started to follow 

Hardy began to make his way to the bridge. He heard another phaser blast, causing the computer to react 

“Warning, weapons fire in engineering”

Hardy turned around and began sprinting back down towards the back of the ship. As he turned to go back past hydroponics, he saw Alana fiddling with a console. She heard him coming and turned around.

“Where the hell did he get that?” She shouted. 

“Not important, are you alright?” Hardy asked, genuinely concerned, however, in his flustered state it sounded sarcastic.

“Shut up Chris, he’s trying to deactivate the power.” She said, turning back to the console “He said something about Salem being a sleeper agent?”

“I just need to inject him with this, its caffeine, it should calm him down” Hardy said

“Your telling me this can be fixed with a cup of bloody coffee?” Alana said; however, she was cut off when Bev came running out of engineering. He stopped when he realised Marrik wasn’t with them.

“Where is that Cardy bastard?” Bev asked, still griping the phaser

“Daxon has him in the med bay, you need to take this Bev, it will calm you down.” Alana said, trying to act calmly and sound soothing, however, much like Hardy did, she sounded sarcastic.

“I am perfectly calm!” Bev shouted, not noticing the irony “He is working for the Obsidian Order! He said it himself!”

“Bev, your high. Clearly your mind doesn’t react well to the drug, why don’t you give me the phaser and let me give you this hypo, then we can decide if Marrik is a spy.” Hardy said. He held his hand out to his friend, showing him the hypo spray, “You trust me, don’t you? Just take it and we can sort this whole mess out.”

“You take it first.” Bev replied.

“I only have one” Hardy said, “Why don’t you come with us to the med bay and we can get another”

“I’ll take one too if it would make you feel better” Alana chimed in.

“Fine, you two go first though, I don’t want him ambushing me” Bev said, looking around behind him like he was expecting to see Marrik there.

Alana and Hardy began walking to the med bay, with Bev following from a distance he considered safe. As they got closer, Alana heard Bev pressing buttons on the phaser. She looked at her brother and he looked back at her. Hardy felt that piercing look again, she always looked at him that way when she was genuinely angry at him. For the last few days, she hadn’t looked at him any other way.

The door to the med bay opened, Daxon and Marrik were both standing holding phasers, pointing them at Bev.

“I knew it! You’re a spy too!” Bev shouted, firing a shot at Daxon, missing by quite a bit.

“Wait!” Alana screamed as Hardy turned and jumped at Bev, pushing him to the floor. 

“Let us stun him!” Marrik shouted, trying to get a shot without hitting Hardy.

“Chris, the hypo!” Alana shouted, as Chris and Bev wrestled on the floor. Somehow Bev had managed to hold on to the phaser and had it between him and Hardy.

“I dropped it. Gentlemen, if your done making things worse, you could come and help me restr…” Hardy’s request was cut short as Bev fired his phaser into his gut, sending him flying backwards into Daxon. Alana let out a blood curdling scream as Marrik stunned Bev. 

“Alana! The phaser!” Marrik shouted, running to Hardy, who was still on top of Daxon. Alana grabbed the phaser and went to turn it to stun but was surprised to see it was already on its lowest setting however, even at its lowest setting, a shot that close was sure to do some damage.

“Get him on the bio bed!” Daxon shouted as Marrik dragged Hardy off him. “And restrain Bev on the other one!”

Once Hardy was on the bed, Marrik’s attention turned to the unconscious Andorian. Alana was already dragging him across the floor by his arm, but she lacked the upper body strength to lift him plus, Bev was a bit on the heftier side, for an Andorian. 

“Give me a Tricorder.” Daxon barked. Marrik pulled the device from his belt and handed it to him. “Medical Tricorder” Daxon said, sounding more annoyed. Alana handed him the correct device.

“I need you two out. Now!” Daxon said to the others, waving the Tricorder over Hardy’s torso.

Marrik took Daxon’s phaser from the corner it landed in, and Alana picked Hardy’s up from the hallway. She gestured to Marrik to come with her and looked back at her unconscious twin brother, she feared that she wouldn’t see him awake again.


	4. Mint Tea and Chocolate

Marrik and Alana walked down the hallway, towards Hardy’s quarters. So far neither had spoken to each other since they left the med bay. The silence was quite awkward, but the two had a lot to think about. Marrik was still grinning slightly but, after a few more meters of quiet, Alana spoke up.

“What were you two thinking?” She asked, poking him in the arm with one of the phasers. “Why would you take a drug that no one from either of your species has taken before. Humans haven’t even used it since the twenty second century. We had no idea what it would do!”

“Bev said it would be safe and he was right” Marrik replied calmly, “We both ingested the same amount, and it hasn’t done us any physical damage” Suddenly Alana stopped, her furious expression returning to her face.

“Tell that to Chris! And Bev for that matter! They both got shot because of this bloody plant!” She shouted “All we know so far is that you were ok. Bev freaked out and tried to kill you! He hasn’t come around yet either, for all we know he could have suffered serious mental damage!”

“It was his idea anyway! He knew the risk; he was the one who had the idea to grow this stuff, so I thought he knew what he was doing.” Marrik retorted, growing angrier with Alana. He didn’t think that he was at fault. He didn’t shoot Hardy and he didn’t go crazy. He was the one who restrained Bev and allowed Hardy to use the hypo spray on him, if anything, she should be grateful to him.

They arrived at Hardy’s quarters. As they entered, Marrik noticed the open panel in the wall. He placed the two phasers he was holding back in their mounts and closed the panel. As they turned to leave, Alana noticed a pad left on Hardy’s bed. She picked it up and read what it said.

“This is about Cannabis” Alana exclaimed “Chris must have been reading up about it. At least someone wants to know what this thing does.”

“I wanted to see what it did!” Marrik said “That’s why I took some!”

Alana ignored Marrik and kept reading, she was looking for side effects or negative reactions. When she found that it can cause paranoia, she got overexcited and pushed the pad into Marrik’s chest, forcing him to stumble backwards into the wall. 

“What is it?” Marrik asked

“It says it can cause paranoia!” She replied “It’s just a side effect. Its worse depending on how much you take. How much did you take?”

“We each ate three of the buds. About three grams.” Marrik said, handing back the pad “Is that a lot?”

“It says that people used to smoke it or put it in baked food.” Alana said, ignoring Marrik again.

“Is what we took a lot?”

“They also used to mix it with other chemicals, creating a sort of vapour. It caused less physical health issues”

“ALANA!”

“YES! You took a lot, especially for a first time, no wonder you were almost completely out of it. If Bev took that much too then his reaction is pretty normal, for humans that is. It says nothing about other species.” Alana said, frustrated with Marrik’s shouting. 

“Let’s take back where they belong,” Marrik said, gesturing to the two phasers Alana had set down on the bed. “We can give that pad to Myles and he can see if there’s any better counteragent than caffeine.” 

“Good idea, we should hurry, I want to see how Chris is doing.” Alana said, picking up one of the phasers. She hurried out the door and began powerwalking to the bridge, with Marrik in tow.

Once they put the other phasers back, Marrik and Alana made their way back to the med bay, however when they arrived, they couldn’t get in. Daxon had locked the doors. Marrik knocked on the glass and pointed to the lock. When Daxon turned around, Marrik realised that he was dressed for surgery and holding bloodied tools.

“Oh my god!” Alana exclaimed, pushing her hands against the glass. Daxon placed the tools on a nearby table. He made his way to the door, checking on Bev as he walked past. When the door opened, Marrik tried to get in but Daxon held him back.

“Not yet Salem,” Daxon said “Let me explain,”

“Is he going to be ok?” Alana cried, tears building up in her eyes.

“Don’t worry!” Daxon said, “The blast snapped one of his ribs and it was restricting his breathing, I have to reconnect it. It’s an easy procedure to perform, if you have a steady hand, luckily, I do. He has two other cracked ribs, but they will heal on their own in a few months. He will be fine, he can leave here in four days, but only if I finish the surgery. You two will need to wait out here until I am done.”

“What about Bev?” Marrik asked, looking over Daxon’s shoulder.

“I have him sedated for now.” Daxon replied “I will give him a proper check up when I finish with Hardy.” Daxon turned away, but before he shut the door, Alana handed him the data pad.

“This has information on the drug, from what I can tell there should be no permanent damage to his brain or body.” Alana said, “But this only has information on humans.”

“Thank you, I’ll give this a read when I’m done.” Daxon said.

“I love you” Alana said, leaning in and kissing Daxon. Marrik averted his eyes, he was always uncomfortable around public displays of affection however, he was even more upset around Alana and Myles. The sight of the two of them kissing made him feel physically sick. He just ignored it usually, but this time was much worse. He passed it off as him still being high and put it to the back of his mind.

“Good luck with the surgery Myles, can I get you anything for when your done?” Marrik asked, hoping he would say nothing.

“Thank you, Salem, a cup of mint tea and some chocolate would be brilliant” Daxon said smiling. He turned and shut the door. Checking on Bev as he walked back to the operating table.

“I’m going to the bridge, call me when Myles is finished.” Alana said, still drying her eyes.

“Can I get you anything?” Marrik asked, this time hoping for a yes.

“No, thank you” Alana replied. She turned and made her way back to the bridge.

Marrik just stood there, watching as she walked away, before realising what he was doing and quickly directing his focus to Daxon and Hardy. He couldn’t focus on them for long though, his thoughts dwelled on Alana and how this was affecting her. He hoped that this would distract her from the disrespect that him and the others had been showing her boyfriend. He thought about deactivating the transporter protocol, but he decided to consult Hardy first.

As he made his way to the mess hall, he began to think about the ship that he found himself on. 

The Lovecraft was a Merchantman class freighter that had been refitted to house two more crewmen and a hydroponics bay. Hardy had acquired it from a Zakdorn friend at Surplus Depot Z15 in Qualor 2. After giving the quartermaster a few extra slips of latinum, Hardy had convinced them to part with some of there hydroponics equipment and medical tools. 

Hardy asked Marrik to join his crew when he visited Corvan 2 where Marrik was working as a mining engineer. Marrik’s parents had moved there after the Dominion war. Galion Marrik, Salem’s father, was a military officer before the end of the Dominion war and fought in the battle of Cardassia. He was serving as first officer on one of the ships that turned against the Jem’Hadar and Breen. 

After the war, Cardassia was left with many scars. All of his extended family were killed in the attack on Lakarian City. Luckily his mother, Hila, was out of the city at the time, visiting friends in the early stages of her pregnancy. When her husband returned, they had little left. They moved to Corvan 2 because they felt that after the war, the Federation was the most secure place to live, even for a Cardassian.

They knew Salem would have a hard childhood, especially around Humans and other Federation citizens, but they knew he would come out stronger and smarter than if he was raised on a planet devastated by war. When they signed him up for the interplanetary school exchange, they were surprised to find out that he would be able to study at a Highschool on Earth. When he was 13, Salem travelled to Hardwick Highschool in Brighton, England. There he met a human boy named Chris Hardy, and an Andorian named Bevoni. 

He lived on Earth for a year and was very reluctant to leave. When he did, he made a promise to send a message to his friends at least once a month. Less than a year later, their families visited Corvan 2 as a surprise for Salem. This became an annual tradition for the kids until one day, they arrived on their own ship. 

That was the day that Salem left Corvan 2 to become an engineer of the star ship Lovecraft. That day was the happiest of his life.

When Marrik finally arrived at the mess hall, he brought his thoughts back to the here and now. He ordered a mint tea and chocolate from the replicator for Daxon and a glass of Kanar for himself.


	5. Leadership Debates

Alana sat in her chair on the bridge. She couldn’t stop thinking about her brother, lying unconscious in the med bay. She had every faith in Myles, but she still couldn’t stop herself from ruminating about it. Her mind kept dwelling on thoughts of awful transmissions back home, telling their parents that Chris life-long friend had killed him in a drug fuelled paranoia about Cardassian spies.

She knew that Chris would be fine, Myles said that the surgery was easy. He had a very steady hand, she knew that well, but she still found herself terrified of a negative outcome. She tried to distract herself by plotting a route on her console.

Their first stop was Farius Prime then they would continue on to Varex III, Donatu V, Kronos, Osaar, Cestus III and Halii. All of these planets had black markets and people who had already ordered some of the drug from Nevis. The journey would take them two months, however, she thought that somehow, they would take much longer.

After Alana finished plotting the course, she checked the sensor logs from the last few hours. They had been on silent running since the day before and so far, only one communication had come in. Directly to Hardy’s quarters. The caller had no identification on their signal so she would have to ask her brother about it when he woke up, however she knew that it was probably Nevis. 

She checked the internal sensors for damage caused by Bev in engineering, only some minor damage to the bulkheads and a few control panels. Nothing Marrik couldn’t fix. She wondered how he was doing. He was partially responsible for what happened, even though it was Bev’s idea, he could have stopped him if he tried. She expected this sort of thing from Bev but Marrik, he knew better. Marrik had always been a voice of reason for her brother and his friends and they usually listened to him, but maybe now that they were spending a long period of time together, he was becoming more like them.

The first time Alana met Marrik was when Chris brought him home from school when they were thirteen. He had told them that he was an exchange student from Corvan 2 who would be staying for a while. She had never seen a Cardassian before, only heard stories about them and what they did in the war. She was scared by him initially however her brother trusted him and that was good enough for her. She had come with her family to Corvan 2 a few times, but she didn’t like visiting the mining colony. After all, being brought up on earth made her used to a certain quality of life that wasn’t well represented on a mining colony. 

Marrik’s skills in the field of engineering was always impressive to her. She couldn’t quite fathom how an immigrant from a destroyed union could gain so much knowledge in running a star ship in a place so… dirty. 

Before she could finish her thought, a light flashed on her console. Alana immediately got up from her station and sprinted out of the bridge. By the time she reached the med bay, Marrik was already there.

“Took you long enough” He said, sipping on a glass of a thin blue drink that Alana didn’t recognise. Once again Alana ignored him and made a beeline for Chris.

“Wait!” Daxon shouted, looking up from his chocolate, “He’s sleeping off the anaesthetic!”

Alana ignored him and approached her brother. She took his hand and looked at his face.

“Myles, how is he?” She asked, tears once again building up in her eyes. 

“Like I said, he’s sleeping. The surgery went well, his ribs have begun healing. The broken one is no longer restricting his breathing and the two others will heal on their own.” Daxon said “He won’t be able to do anything that would be too strenuous for a few months.”

“When will he wake up?” Marrik asked

“In a few hours” Daxon replied “The anaesthetic will be out of his system by then.”

“What about him?” Marrik said, gesturing to Bev

“I’ve kept him sedated because of the amount of THC in his system” Daxon replied “I will wake him after Chris is conscious.”

“THC? What’s that?” Alana asked

“It’s the substance in the plant that causes the psychotropic reaction” Daxon said “I think it is more potent when mixed into Andorian blood, which is why he had a more negative reaction than Marrik did. Humans and Cardassians have similar blood chemistry. They’re both iron based, which is also why it appears red. I think that iron has a diminishing effect on THC. Andorian blood is high in cobalt, somehow that seem to exacerbate the effects.”

“Well what do we do now?” Alana asked, turning to Marrik. “Until Chris wakes up, we can’t begin our journey. Bev is the only one who knows what to do in the hydroponics bay. I guess I’m in charge while they’re out.”

“Since when were you next in command?” Marrik snapped “I’m chief engineer, surely when Hardy’s unconscious then I am in charge!”

“I think Alana is right, she’s a bridge officer, you need to concentrate on engineering.” Daxon said, really, he thought that Marrik should be in charge, Alana was only the helmsman and had no other expertise. But if he sided with Marrik over her, he would probably end up booted out the nearest airlock. 

“I don’t believe this!” Marrik shouted “Ok Alana, what would you have me do?”

“Well… You should probably… Make sure the warp core is functioning properly.” She said, desperately trying to come up with something to make her sound like she knew what she was doing.

“Ok, I ran a diagnostic yesterday, we’re at maximum efficiency.” Marrik said sarcastically “What I think we should do is work on some kind of internal communication system. Usually ships like this come with them pre-installed but when the Zakdorn seem to have removed it when the ship was refitted for the hydroponics bay.”

“How do you plan on doing that?” Daxon asked, his field only went as far as medicine.

“I can use the replicators to create devices like a star fleet com badge.” Marrik said, with a smug grin on his face “I can also install panels in every important room on the ship.”

“But they’re only food replicators, they can’t synthesise technology like that.” Alana retorted “Plus, the technology star fleet use in their com badges is classified.” 

“The schematics for their badges are classified, the technology used in them is available to everyone.” Marrik said, “I can recycle some of the other useless parts from engineering to create the resources I need.”

“Ok, get on that.” Alana said, again trying to take charge, “Myles, keep studying the plant. I think Bev will need an assistant, and I think the rest of us will need someone watching over him, so he doesn’t do anything else stupid.”

Alana turned and began to leave. Marrik stopped her by putting his hand on her shoulder. This startled her and she jumped and turned around.

“This doesn’t mean your in charge!” Marrik said, increasingly frustrated. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to the bridge” She said, “Put the first two comm panels there and here so when Chris wakes up, I can be notified.”

Alana turned and left. Marrik and Daxon stood there awkwardly for a moment. Then Daxon spoke up.

“I would prefer it if you weren’t in the room when we wake Bev up,” He said timidly, he was always intimidated by Marrik, they had never had any kind of issue with each other, but he didn’t know him as well as the others did. “I don’t know if he will still be under the effects of the drug when he wakes up. Seeing you might provoke an… emotional reaction”

“Fine, I’ll be back in a while to install the comm panel.” Marrik said as he left the med bay.

Daxon turned back to his patients, he thought about how he sided with Alana earlier. He should have told her how he really felt, she only had training in piloting a ship and didn’t know anything about other systems. If anyone should be second in command, it should be Marrik. He knew enough about the ship to be able to run it without Hardy. 

Bev would also work well as a first officer, however his recent behaviour showed that his mind was never in one place. If he were in command he may have them all hopped up on their supply whilst he began work on another useless project. He wasn’t as reliable as Marrik and didn’t have the engineering experience, the only reason why Hardy would choose him to be his second in command would be because they get on so well. With their back and forth they made a great team. This recent incident excluded.

Daxon was so caught up in his thoughts, he didn’t hear Marrik come back in.

“That was quick” Daxon said as Marrik walked over to the wall near the computer console.

“I was gone an hour, is here ok for your panel?” Marrik asked

“Yes, that’s fine” Daxon replied, looking at his now cold mint tea. “Have you installed one on the bridge?”

“Yes, once I have finished this one we can test them” Marrik said “How is your research going?”

Daxon realised that in he was so caught up in his thoughts, he hadn’t even touched the data pad let alone started his research.

“I have only had time to have a brief look, but I should be all caught up soon.” Daxon lied, “Listen, I’m sorry I sided with Alana earlier, you were right. If anyone should be in charge whilst Chris is out, it should be you.”

“Well why didn’t you say so?” Marrik asked, still working on the comm panel.

“Have you met her? She would have gone mental if I had argued with her. If I make an enemy of my own girlfriend, I’ll have no-one on my side here.” Daxon said, hoping that Marrik would reassure him, however before he could reply, Hardy began to wake up.

Daxon rushed over and scanned him with a tricorder. 

“Chris, can you hear me?” Daxon said, moving his face in closer, “How do you feel?”

“My chest is killing me.” He replied 

“You have two cracked ribs and one broken one” Daxon said “The phaser was on stun, you were lucky”

“Comm panels ready” Marrik butted in. “Oh, hey look who’s up”

“What comm panel?” Hardy asked as Daxon helped him sit up

“I’ll show you,” Marrik said grinning “Med bay to bridge, Chris is up!”


	6. Recovery

Alana sprinted out of the bridge. She passed the crew quarters and mess hall until she arrived at the med bay.

“Chris!” She screamed happily “How do you feel?”

“Like shit to be honest,” He replied “Marrik was just explaining the new comms system.” He looked over at Marrik, who’s demeaner had suddenly changed from confident, to sceptical.

“Yes,” Marrik said “I was just saying how I plan to install a panel in every room in the ship, I assume that you heard me from the bridge.”

“Your voice came through perfectly” She replied, “But now that Chris is awake, I relieve command of the Lovecraft back to him.” 

“What do you mean?” Hardy asked, but then Daxon cut him off.

“That’s not important right now” He said, gesturing over to the unconscious Andorian to his left, “I can’t keep pumping him full of sedatives you know”

“How is he?” Hardy asked, standing up from his bio bed and immediately regretting it.

“He won’t suffer any permanent damage other than a bruise from the phaser” Daxon said, walking over to Bev and scanning him with a tricorder. “I would prefer it if Marrik wasn’t here when I wake him up. Just in case.”

“I agree” Hardy said “Why don’t you go and install the rest of the comm panels. Start with hydroponics and engineering”

“You got it boss” Marrik said “Good to have you back”. As Marrik walked out, he patted Hardy on the shoulder, causing him to wince and stumble.

However, Hardy’s pain was quickly overcome with a sense of happiness. That was the first time anyone on the ship had called him boss. It may have just been because he had given him an instruction, but he would still remember that moment for the rest of his life.

“I’m going to wake him now.” Daxon said, filling a hypo spray with a blue liquid. He put it to Bev’s neck and injected him. Bev began to stir and open his eyes.

“Chris?” He said, “Where am I?” As he said that he realised he was strapped to a bio bed. He began to struggle and panic. 

“Bevoni, calm down! You’re okay, you had a bad reaction to the drug.” Daxon’s attempts to calm him down fell on deaf ears as Bev kept struggling.

“Let me out!” He shouted, “Chris! Make him release me!”

“It’s ok Bev!” Chris said, approaching him and trying to put his hand on his shoulder reassuringly. “We will remove the restraints if you calm down.”

“Okay.” Bev said as he stopped struggling, he tried to regain control of his breathing, but had exhausted himself trying to get free.

“What’s the last think you remember?” Daxon asked.

“I was in the hydroponics bay with Marrik” Bev replied “He asked me how much I knew about Cannabis Indica. I told him I know how to grow it but that’s pretty much it. Then I suggested we do some first-hand research and took some out of the sample crate.”

“Is that all you remember?” Alana asked angrily.

“I remember eating it.” Bev said “It tasted horrible; I don’t think that’s how you’re meant to take it. I blacked out after that.”

“Oh, I’m sure you did!” Alana shouted, “Are you sure you don’t remember anything else? Perhaps trying to kill Marrik? SHOOTING CHRIS WITH A PHASER?!”

“Alana!” Hardy shouted, “That’s enough!” 

“I don’t remember any of that!” Bev said defensively, “The last thing I saw was Marrik gagging when he ate his.”

“That’s okay.” Daxon said, glancing at the data pad and skim reading the side effects section, “Cannabis is known to cause memory loss.”

Bev was incredibly uncomfortable. So far all he knew was that he had taken a drug and tried to kill his friends. He could see that Chris was ok and so were Alana and Myles, but Salem was nowhere in sight. He was still hyperventilating and couldn’t calm down. The others were still talking to him but none of the words made sense. They were just noises and didn’t mean anything. He tried again to get free. But to no avail.

“Okay. I’ll remove the restraints now Bev.” Daxon said, grabbing Bev’s attention “I still want to give you more of an examination before you can go.”

“Where’s Salem?” Bev asked, looking at Hardy. Chris and Myles looked at each other, concerned about weather this amnesia episode had been a ploy to find Marrik.

“He’s fine Bev,” Hardy replied, “He’s doing some maintenance.”

Daxon removed the restraints and helped Bev up from the bed. Bev stumbled a little, causing him to lean on Hardy, which made him cry out in pain.

“ARGH”

“Sorry,” Bev said, “I guess I don’t know my own strength”

“No,” Hardy replied, still catching his breath, “I have a few cracked ribs from when you shot me.”

“I… Well… I don’t remember…” Bev didn’t know what to say, hearing that he shot his best friend was difficult to understand. Even if he was under the influence of a narcotic, he couldn’t even fathom shooting Chris. The idea of doing that broke his heart. “Chris, I’m so, so sorry. Are you going to be ok?”

“There was no permanent damage to anyone.” Daxon interrupted, “His ribs will heal in a few months.”

Bev still felt terrible. He began to tear up. He didn’t know what to do, he had always done things like this, but they never ended with someone getting hurt, especially not by him. When they were sixteen, Bev and Chris went on holiday to France. When they were there, they broke into a vineyard. It was Bev’s idea, Chris tried to talk him out of it but when he saw how much wine was stored in their cellar, he decided they wouldn’t miss a few bottles. Both of them drank three bottles. They nearly shit themselves when a Romulan woman chased them out with a sword. 

When they got back from their holiday, Bev bragged to Alana about it. She asked where the winery was. When he told her it was in a town called La Barre, she burst out laughing. She told them that they had broken into a vineyard owned by the legendary Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, Chris nearly fainted. It made a great anecdote for parties, and helped Bev woo some attractive lades from time to time. But still, no one was hurt.

Knowing that he shot his best friend changed something in Bev. He decided then and there that he would get his act together. He would focus only on his work and stop messing around with useless ideas that wasted time and resources. Chris had enough on his plate without having to worry about whether his friend was trying to overload the warp reactor so he could turn himself into some omnipotent god (An idea that had crossed his mind before, numerous times).

“I won’t do anything so stupid again Chris!” Bev said, standing up straight and wiping the tears from his eyes. “Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it. I can’t apologise enough!” 

“I want you to go to your quarters and rest.” Chris replied “I want to have a meeting with everyone on the bridge tomorrow morning. I think we should discuss what has transpired and what we’re going to do going forward.” 

“Ok,” Bev replied, walking towards the door. He was still quite weak from the sedative that Daxon used so he moved quite slowly. He turned back to Chris and the others, “Tell Salem I’m sorry, I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to talk to him right now.”

Chris was about to correct him, Marrik was completely fine. He knew what happened and had no hard feelings, but instead Chris thought it best not to interfere with Bev’s emotions. 

“Ok, Bev. I’ll tell him.” He said, reassuringly.

“Thanks”

Bev walked out and made his way back to his quarters. Chris, Alana and Myles all stayed in the med bay. When she was sure he wouldn’t hear, Alana spoke up.

“Ok, I know that he was on drugs and that he has been unconscious for hours, but that was incredibly uncharacteristic for him. She said, putting her hands on her hips and looking at her brother. “I don’t think he’s ever apologised for anything.”

“He did shoot Chris.” Daxon said, putting away his medical tools and disinfecting the bio beds.

“And he tried to kill Salem” Hardy said, sitting back down on the bed, causing Daxon to become annoyed. Then Daxon looked back to the data pad, to the lasting effects section. He once again skim read the paragraph and only took a few key facts from it.

“Cannabis has been known to cause lasting effects on people’s personality,” He said confidently, “It’s rare but due to how susceptible Andorians appear to be, I think its plausible for him.” 

Hardy felt a sharp pain in his back when he heard that, the thought of his best friend potentially changing was frightening and he didn’t think that he could function without Bev’s relaxed attitude and calm demeaner. He began to hyperventilate, which caused more pain in his ribs, but he didn’t care about that. His mind was racing with thoughts about how Bev could act after his experience. Would he not like him anymore? Could this change the nature of their friendship? Would he still be able to help out on the ship? 

Suddenly, he felt like he couldn’t breathe. He began gasping for breath, looking over to Daxon who had already picked up his tricorder. Chris felt a pain in his chest. Not in his ribs but in his heart. He was having a heart attack.

At least, that is what he thought. Daxon scanned him for circulatory issues and respiratory problems but found nothing. Naturally, he scanned the brain next. 

“His amygdala is producing an alarming number of hormones.” Daxon said, turning over to his desk. He synthesised fifty millilitres of citalopram and filled a hypo spray. “This should reduce the volume,” He pressed the hypo against Chris neck, who was still gasping for air.

“What’s wrong with him?” Alana yelled, taking Chris’s hand.

“Don’t worry,” Daxon replied in his reassuring tone, “He’s experiencing an anxiety attack. Once the citalopram kicks in he should calm down, but your yelling and panicking is only going to make it worse.”

Alana didn’t listen. All she saw was her brother suffocating on a bio bed and her boyfriend calmly organising some hypo sprays. She didn’t understand why Myles was doing nothing. Clearly the hypo didn’t help, why wasn’t he trying other methods?

“WHY WONT YOU HELP HIM?” Alana shouted furiously, whilst Chris continued to choke. She kept on panicking, making Chris panic more. Daxon, who was at a loss for words, was fiddling with a hypo spray and scowling at her.

“Please, Alana!” He said sternly, “If you don’t calm down I will have to ask you to leave!”

“I’m not leaving him like this!”

“For the last time, he is fine! He is having a panic attack; I have given him medication! You are only making things worse by trying to help! You clearly don’t understand what is happening and you are putting what you think is happening in front of the actual issue!” Daxon shouted, finally standing up to his partner. He walked over to the newly installed comm panel. “Marrik, I need you to remove Ms Hardy from the med bay. She is exacerbating a medical issue by remaining.”

“On my way,” Marrik replied.

“You can’t do this!” Alana shouted, refocusing her attention too her boyfriend. He had never spoken up to her like that. He thought he knew better than she did, which didn’t bode well for him. Alana had always thought that she knew her brother better. She had never had panic attacks before, why would he be having one?

As she was staring down Myles, Alana heard the door open behind her and the sound of approaching footsteps. She saw a grey hand land on her shoulder. At this point her anger with Marrik had reached its peak.

“Alana, if Myles needs you to leave, you have to leave.” Marrik said calmly. “I don’t want to force you.”

Marrik wasn’t really sure why Daxon thought to call him to remove Alana. They didn’t have anyone in charge of security and with no command hierarchy, he nor Daxon had no real right to remove Alana forcefully. If anything, his presence would make things worse. She was already angry with him and was clearly angry with Daxon. For some reason nether of them were paying much attention to Hardy, who was only just getting his breath back.

Before Marrik got a chance to voice any of his concerns to the others, he found himself on the floor, bleeding from his nose.

“Alana!” Daxon shouted, running around the bio bed and over to the bleeding Cardassian. Before he got a chance to say anything else, she was out the door.  
“I’m ok” Marrik said “What’s wrong with Chris now?”

Chris had stopped hyperventilating, and had sat back up, clutching the bio bed furiously as a way to counteract the pain searing in his chest. After a few more seconds of grimacing and clenched teeth, he stood.

“He was having a rather severe panic attack,” Daxon said, “However I gave him some citalopram and he appears to be coming around. Your nose is broken Marrik, I’ll fix it in a minute.”

“I was just thinking about Bev” Chris said, straightening up and running his fingers through his thick brown hair. “The thought of his personality changing is… undesirable to say the least.”

“What was up with Alana?” Marrik asked, touching his broken nose gently with his thumb and forefinger. “I knew she was pissed with me, but I didn’t think she would hit me.”

“There was little I could do to help Chris whilst he was having his attack,” Daxon said shamefully “She saw that as me being negligent and began to panic herself. She was making Chris worse and refused to leave so I called you to lend a hand.

“Thanks”

“Sorry”

“If you two don’t mind” Chris interjected, “I will be going back to my quarters for a nap.” He was increasingly tired after his ordeal, even though he had been unconscious for the better part of the day. He had been woken in the middle of the night after all. “Marrik, gather the troops in the mess at 18:00 tomorrow. I think we need to have a group talk.”

Hardy turned and left the med bay, leaving Daxon and Marrik to ponder recent events. He knew that they would get off to a rocky start, but so far this whole project had been a disaster. However, he would have to worry about that in the morning, right now he needed to rest.

Once he arrived at his cabin, he felt a sense of relief. He saw that Alana and Marrik had left it in a tidy state when they dropped the phasers off. To be safe he checked that they were in their panel and they were. Finally, he sat down on his bed. His eyes felt drier than a Tellarite’s sense of humour. He lied back on his mattress and closed them gently. He fell asleep almost instantaneously.


	7. Exaggerated Skills

“Captains Log Star date… 25th of December 2401. We are en-route for Farius Prime to make our first delivery of Cannabis Indica. The requested amount is 100 kilograms. Thanks to our new hydroponics bay and the technical skills of leftennant Marrik, we have already produced 80 kilograms and the last 20 will be ready by the time we arrive. We are meeting with one of Nevis associates on Farius in a few days. Nevis will send us the coordinates for the rendezvous once we enter the system.”

Alana turned to her brother from her station at the helm “I still think the logs are a bad idea Captain, so much of what you just said can be used as evidence for incarceration in our eventual trial.”

Hardy had only come to the bridge that morning to record that log, he knew that Alana would be there to object. He valued her input, but she was only repeating the same arguments. Lucky for her, the logs he recorded then weren’t real. The real logs only implicated Daxon and made the others look like innocence who had no idea what the plant was. However, Alana wouldn’t be made aware of that until the last minute so that only Daxon would be arrested and they could get off Scott free.

“You know that if we are caught the Klingons won’t send us to prison.” He replied, trying to push the narrative that they would all be in trouble, “Their justice system often leans towards execution. We may not even make it to the trial if they catch us. Captured ships tend to disappear when left in the hands of their military.”

Hardy knew that she would not have signed on if she thought that there was any real danger. She probably would not have let the others go either.

“Well we are federation citizens,” she replied, crossing her arms stubbornly “If we’re caught by the Klingons then we can appeal to the federation embassy on Kronos and well end up on a penal colony.”

Hardy was about to give a half assed response but was cut of when Marrik entered the bridge holding a tray of small round devices.

“Sir, I have finished the comm badges.” He said placing the tray on Alana’s console. “Their linked with the internal comms I installed last week so we can talk to each other wherever we are, even if someone is off the ship, they can talk with say… Bev in the hydroponics bay instead of just the bridge.”

Hardy picked up one of the badges and fiddled with it in his hand, it looked like a small bronze leaf on a silver backplate. “Well done Marrik, I’m impressed. Have you given them to the others yet?”

“I gave one to Bevoni, but I couldn’t find Daxon” Marrik replied.

“I can fix that!” Hardy said, a grin sneaking onto his face, “Computer, run program Salem one Bridge!”

A bright blue light filled the room as a sleeping Myles Daxon appeared three feet above the floor. With a loud thump he landed on the hard metal plating, waking him from his deep slumber. 

“Oww” he groaned as he rolled over onto his back. The others began to giggle. Daxon realised that he was only wearing his underwear. Hardy picked up another comm badge from the tray and placed it on Daxon’s chest. 

“Here’s your badge, I’m sure you understand how it works.” Hardy said, stifling a laugh. “Computer, run program Salem one crew quarters.”

“Thanks” Daxon said as he disappeared.

Alana picked up her badge and affixed it to her chest. “You need to make that transporter work for everyone.” She said, readjusting her badge so it was slightly more to the left.

“It’s a huge power draw, every time it’s used the lights in the hydroponics bay - we really need to shorten that – they flicker, Bev gets really annoyed when it happens, he will probably come and complain in a minute.” Marrik said, he opened his mouth to continue but was cut off when a grumpy Andorian entered the room.

“Will you please fix that flicker!” Bevoni shouted at Marrik.

“Ah, ah, ah… that’s will you please fix that flicker Sir.” Marrik replied sarcastically “I am your superior officer, and you will address me as such. By the way you didn’t have to come up here, you could have used your new comm badge, I gave it to you half an hour ago and we all have one now. You could have stayed at your station, Crewman” Marrik was purposefully pushing his buttons at this point, but Bevoni wasn’t going to allow that.

“Ok… Sir, Captain Hardy, could you please come with me to the hydro bay, I have something important to show you.” Bevoni said gesturing towards the bridge door.

Hardy looked at Bevoni and sighed “Fine, lets go.”

As Bev and Hardy left the room, Marrik turned to Alana.

“I guess we don’t have to shorten it now” He said, referring to the Hydroponics Bay.

“Yes, my idea was just HB” She replied, moving the tray from her console and pushing it into Marrik.

* * * * *

Bevoni and Hardy walked into the Hydro Bay. Instantly Hardy noticed a change. The plants were substantially shorter and were flowering a lot less. Hardy wasn’t as well versed as Bev, but he had seen the plants growing before and could see the difference.

“What the hell happened?” Hardy asked, turning to Bev. His antenna were pointing down, almost covering his eyes.

“I don’t know what happened,” Bev replied, “these are the new plants for the last batch for Farius Prime, they will produce enough to finish the order but the order for Varex III is much bigger, and the journey is much shorter. I don’t think I can produce 500 kilograms in two weeks.”

“You told me last week that we would have half the total amount ready by the time we reached the beta quadrant!”

Bev’s antenna lowered even further, “That may have been a slight exaggeration.” He replied sheepishly, averting his eyes from Hardy.

Hardy was growing increasingly angry. “I don’t think you realise how bad of a situation you have put me in here Bevoni! In fact, if Nevis finds out that I have lied to him then we are all dead!”

“I didn’t know what you were and weren’t going to tell him,” Bev replied “I didn’t think you were going to give him any updates of our progress, that way we would be able to take the excess and sell it to the Ferengi!”

“How are we going to sell something that we don’t have?” Hardy shouted.

“Fair point”

Hardy walked over to the plants and examined them, he still had no clue what he was looking at, however he noticed a data pad lying on a nearby table. He picked it up and realised it was the same pad he was using to research the drug the night before Bev shot him.

“Bev, what sort of equipment are you using to grow this stuff?” Hardy asked as he picked up the pad.

“The same equipment that they used on earth in the 21st century. That’s when the largest amount of cannabis was in circulation.” He replied as his antenna began to rise away from his face.

“Why not incorporate current technology into the growing process?” Hardy said confidently. “Your tech is nearly four centuries out of date, the federation has made incredible advancements since the 21st century, especially in agriculture, so why not use those advancements?”

Bev looked at the large stack of boxes filled with cannabis, “Well the pad said that most people favoured the more naturally grown plants, for example when the plant briefly became legal in some nation states, many people still favoured the drug that was grown in places where it wasn’t legal because the growers couldn’t have a larger operation with the best technology without risking getting caught.”

Hardy walked away from the table and up to his friend, getting close to his face so that their noses were almost touching, “Bev, the people we’re selling to have no way of comparing, no one has even used this drug in over 200 years. We have a complete monopoly on this, and quality is not our top priority. If we can increase our yield just by sacrificing a bit of potency, we should. Nobody will notice!”

Bev didn’t like the idea, but he knew that there was no point in arguing, especially now that he was on Hardy’s bad side. “Fine” He said begrudgingly “We can see what we can pick up on Farius Prime. There is a large Orion presence there so maybe you can ask Nevis if he can use his connections to get cheap equipment.”

Hardy hated the idea of asking Nevis for anything, especially if he thought that the operation was going better than it actually was. The conversation was cut short by Marrik who was the first to use the new comm badges.

“Skipper, Alana pointed out that the badges bear a distinct resemblance to a cannabis leaf. I asked Bevoni to design the logo, but I did not notice it when they were done. I can change them if you want, I have a few ideas picked out.”

Hardy looked over at Bev disapprovingly, he pressed his badge slowly, “Yes lieutenant, that would be a good idea, when you’re done please come down here and talk with Bevoni about some new equipment we are talking about using.”

“Ok boss, whatever new equipment you want to use will probably require a lot more power. We are having enough problems with power as it is, so we will need more power cells. Marrik out.”

Hardy stared at Bev intensely, causing his antenna to return to their previous position. After twenty seconds, Hardy finally broke his silence, “What the hell were you thinking Bev, just when I think your done with these idiotic ploys, you go and pull another one! So far you have taken an untested drug, shot me, lied about how much cannabis you are growing causing me to lie to the ORION SYNDICATE and made our logo the leaf of an illegal narcotic that we are smuggling! This was your idea, but to me it seems like your trying to sabotage it. What happened? Why are you trying to get us all killed?”

Bev replied, “I don’t know… You were so excited when I told you my idea, you immediately went out and found a ship, got in contact with the Orions and invited Alana and Myles along. You didn’t even tell me that we were picking up Marrik until we were on the transport to Qualor 2. I wasn’t expecting you to take this so seriously, I thought we were going to just sell to small time merchants and go to places where its legal. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. That’s why… I may have exaggerated my skills in hydroponics.”

Hardy was not surprised by this revelation. Bev was always one for exaggeration, but he thought he had grown out of it, unfortunately that wasn’t the case. “Bev, I really wish you had told me this sooner. We can’t pull out of the Orion deal now, otherwise we’re dead, but as soon as its over, we’re going straight to the Ferengi alliance. I understand how you’re feeling, but you handled it poorly, you shouldn’t have lied to me and you’re going to have to work especially hard to finish this deal. What you did put us all in danger, and you are going to have to make up for that, but right now our priority is getting the drug ready for Nevis.”

Bev looked at his feet, causing his antenna to follow suit. “I don’t think I can do it on my own, I’ll need help. Daxon has been giving me a hand but he only really holds stuff while I work. I suppose he could be a permanent assistant if he starts researching hydroponics.”  
Hardy pressed his comm badge and repeated the transporter order, the lights flickered and Daxon appeared in front of them. His hands were out in front of him as if he were holding something and he was grinning down at the space between them. A quiet crash could be heard from the direction of the mess hall.

“Aww, my burger.” Daxon said as he realised what had happened. “What do you guys want now?”

“I need you to start reading up on hydroponics, Bev won’t be able to complete the orders solo.” Hardy replied.

“I have a basic grasp on hydroponics, plants are living beings like us but smaller.” Daxon replies smugly.

“I have to believe it’s more complicated than that, but I like your confidence.” Hardy replied. “Bev, tell Daxon all you can, I have to talk to Marrik about changing the comm badges.”

Hardy left the Hydro Bay and made his way back to the bridge. On his way there all he could think about was how Bev had been acting since the operation started. He was beginning to regret bringing him along.


End file.
